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Iran's Soleimani storms home front
The power of Iran's Shi'ite clergy is in decline, a process likely to intensify once Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei departs the arena. It is in this domestic context that the emerging cult around Quds force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani should be viewed as he leads with great publicity Iran's counter-insurgency efforts in Iraq and Syria. - Mahan Abedin
(Mar 10, '15)
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Give diplomacy with Iran a shot
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's exhortations to the US Congress to forget about a "bad deal" with Iran avoids one problem. Absent a deal, who believes Iran will scale down its nuclear program? Is Iran likely to give up on the whole idea just because the US heeds the warnings of the leader of a country that Iran periodically vows to annihilate? - Donald Kirk
(Mar 10, '15)
Myanmar to repatriate Kachin Rakhines
More than 100,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in Myanmar's Kachin state are to be repatriated to southwestern Rakhine state, with claims their livelihoods are threatened by fighting between rebels and government troops in the country's north. Rakhine state is home to minority ethnic Muslim Rohingyas, considered stateless by the government. - Min Thein Aung and Khet Mar
(Mar 10, '15)
SPENGLER
Air castles of Nuland Kaganate
US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and her ilk are charged with wanting regime change in Moscow. Others do too, just as they might want the restoration of the Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, but they do not expect to get that anytime soon. Promoting regime change is the equivalent of shooting spitballs at the zoo lion: it simply increases the likelihood that the zookeeper will get eaten.
(Mar 10, '15)
Xi aspiring to equal Mao, Deng
President Xi Jinping, barely two years in office, has laid claim to being the third most powerful politician of post-liberation China following Mao Zedong and the architect of the country's economic reforms, Deng Xiaoping. The zealousness with which the party's propaganda machinery is eulogizing his words of wisdom smacks of the cult of personality. - Willy Lam
(Mar 10, '15)
India 'to help design' Su-35S fighter
New Delhi and Moscow are reported to have agreed to carry out design work in India on the latest version of Russia's Su-35 jet fighter. The deal could have negative implications for India's potential purchase of 126 Rafale jets from France's Dassault Aviation. - Awad Mustafa
(Mar 10, '15)
Secret history of Hamas' co-founder
The pictures of Hamad al-Hasanat, lying dead in a mosque surrounded by other slain figures, an assault rifle resting on top of his body as worshippers offered a final prayer before his burial, are not of the man I remember. Rather, I recall him as my geography teacher, his popularity then stemming largely from the fact that he didn't give too much homework and that he didn't hit, as other teachers habitually did.
- Ramzy Baroud
(Mar 9, '15)
Ukraine's old-guard dying mysteriously
Ukraine has seen a recent string of deaths involving senior officials, including an ex-city mayor, a former railway executive, and the former head of the state body in charge of privatization. Each case of death has been ruled a probable suicide. The victims' political allegiances and job histories have led many to suspect that the men were murdered.
- Marichka Naboka
(Mar 9, '15)
Tajik opposition figure killed in Istanbul
The murder in Istanbul of Umarali Quvvatov, an opponent of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, has raised questions about the number of Central Asian political figures meeting a violent end. Quvvatov, who reportedly turned on Rahmon's administration after a soured business deal involving the president's son-in-law, was seeking asylum in Turkey at the time of his killing.
- Chris Rickleton
(Mar 9, '15)
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Turkmenistan 'mobilizes against IS'
Turkmenistan is undertaking the first large-scale mobilization of its reserve military forces since gaining independence, which government officials say is required to ward off the threat of Islamic State forces in Afghanistan, according to a US report that actually gets several Turkmenistan officials to talk on the record.
- Joshua Kucera
(Mar 9, '15)
IS sets sights on Saudi Arabia
The Islamic State's increasingly strident discourse and threats illustrate its rising ambitions; in addition to confronting the incumbent regimes in Iraq and Syria and rival militants and insurgents, the Islamic State's set of goals include challenging Saudi Arabia and overthrowing its monarchy.
- Chris Zambelis
(Mar 9, '15)
THE ROVING EYE
Words US 'thinkland'
dare not speak
Winston Churchill lamented the absence of war - and the loss of empire. His successor, the Empire of Chaos, faces the same quandary, particularly as some wars, as in Ukraine by proxy, are not going so well. No wonder US Think Tankland is contorting itself to produce "forecasts" that dare not reveal the most likely future, with China, Russia and Germany at the helm.
- Pepe Escobar
(Mar 9, '15)
Rationalizing lunacy
in Washington
The "intellectuals" who advise elected leaders in the United States now infest Washington to the extent that they strangle common sense and threaten, like Asian carp let loose in the Great Lakes, the very survival of the ability to perceive reality. Their own individual longevity depends on purveying "novel" insights as irrelevant as Dr Strangelove's "mineshaft gap". - Andrew J Bacevich
(Mar 9, '15)
SPEAKING FREELY
Why can't we be more like Mr Spock?
A tenet of "Vulcan philosophy" is that it cannot be disregarded for personal gain. That view, albeit fictional, sheds light on the merits of world government - preferably created by consensus, not coercion. Even falling short of that, we should recognize that appropriate organizations give us a clearer view of reality and so help us to avoid calamity.
- C Ikehara
(Mar 5, '15)
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Netanyahu adds injury to insult
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu has legitimate cause to sound the alarm about the threat Iran poses. His US Congress speech, however, will do little to improve the substance of any agreement. More injurious is his insinuation that President Obama will accede to a “bad deal" to Israel's detriment. That is simplistic and suggests little understanding of the reality in the context of how a deal can be struck.
- Alon Ben-Meir
(Mar 6, '15)
China slows military spending growth
China is to increase military spending by 10% - less than last year's 12% rise - amid economic growth that is at its slowest in 20 years. The announcement came as Premier Li Keqiang vowed to continue to oppose any move towards Taiwanese independence and support the embattled leader of Hong Kong.
- Xi Wang and Lin Jing
(Mar 6, '15)
Is drone warfare fraying at the edges?
In theory, drone pilots have a cushy life - no muddy foxholes or sandstorm-swept barracks under threat of enemy attack - playing what others might consider a glorified video game. Only a few are deputized to fly kill missions over Pakistan, Somalia, or Yemen. Ideally, there should be 1,700 trained pilots. Instead, an accelerating dropout rate has driven this figure below 1,000. - Pratap Chatterjee
(Mar 6, '15)
N Korea hails attack on US envoy
The United States and South Korea have deplored the knife attack on the US envoy to Seoul by a nationalist that led to Ambassador Mark Lippert requiring 80 stitches to seal a deep gash on right cheek. North Korea praised the attack as "righteous punishment".
(Mar 6, '15)
SINOGRAPH
China challenge
for Pope Francis
In less than 20 years, Protestants of all denominations in China went from being less than 1% of the population to about 10% while the number of Roman Catholics has fallen to less than 1% of the population. As Pope Francis seeks to revolutionize Church affairs against the opposition of many in the Curia, China may become part of an existential issue for the Church.
- Francesco Sisci
(Mar 6, '15)
IS threatens Afghanistan peace hopes
The catastrophic consequences of failing to establish peace in Afghanistan loom larger now than at any time before, but a reformulated US strategy and signs of improving links with Pakistan raise some hope. However, trans-regional cooperation is needed urgently to combat the Islamic State's growing role in the area before IS wrecks those fragile buds of progress. - Jan Agha Iqbal
(Mar 5, '15)
SPENGLER
World bows to Iran's hegemony
The problem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the US Congress was not the risk of offending Washington but Washington's receding relevance. World powers, including China, have elected to legitimize Iran's dominant position, hoping to delay but not deter its eventual acquisition of nuclear weapons. But war cannot be avoided; it is inevitable.
(Mar 4, '15)
China's 'artificial islands' in South China Sea
China's construction of artificial islands on a series of disputed reefs in the South China Sea has raised concerns of a fresh "China threat" in the Asia Pacific, causing a new kind of security dilemma. It is hard to dismiss the likelihood of a military collision in the area in the near future. - Amrita Jash
(Mar 5, '15)
Armenia recalls the Zurich Protocols
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's recall from parliament of the 2009 US-sponsored Zurich Protocols between his country and Turkey undoes the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two and the re-opening of their mutual border the protocols made possible - just as Turkey prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli and Armenia the centenary of its own people's genocide. - Erik Davtyan
(Mar 5, '15)
A crisis of trust in Iraq
We will never know what painful thoughts went through the mind of General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he testified before US senators on Tuesday, but it certainly wouldn’t have been easy for him to compliment Iran’s "most overt conduct … in the form of artillery and other things" in the military operation to retake Tikrit from the control of the Islamic State. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 5, '15)
Tackling Tehran: Netanyahu vs Obama
As negotiations over Iran's nuclear program continued in Europe, Israeli Premier Netanyahu told US Congress he feared the White House was close to striking a "very bad" deal. The absence of dozens of Democrats and the cheers that greeted his warnings of a "nuclear tinderbox" demonstrated the divisive nature of the issue in Washington. - James Reinl
(Mar 4, '15)
Obama's nuclear squeeze
Netanyahu's address to the US Congress will have no effect on the future modalities of US-Iran nuclear negotiations. But if he can nudge Congress not to relax sanctions on Iran, even after a nuclear deal, then Tehran might retaliate by reversing some agreed upon issues of those intricate negotiations. - Ehsan Ahrari
(Mar 4, '15)
Iran squashes IS, US seeks cover
An operation by Iraqi government forces to recapture Tikrit, north of Baghdad, from Islamic State militants, has resulted in fierce fighting around the town, seen as the spiritual heartland of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime. This hugely important development has three dimensions. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 4, '15)
A Chechen role in Nemtsov murder?
For many in Russia and the West, the Kremlin is inevitably the prime suspect in the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. But the possibility of a Chechen connection should not be dismissed out of hand, given Nemtsov's repeated criticism of Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov.
(Mar 4, '15)
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Planets deal blow
to India's marriages
The multi-thousand-dollar wedding business in India's Gujarat state - and possibly further afield - has been dealt a heavy blow following a finding by astrologers that, from July, Jupiter will be in an "unpropitious" phase, during which happy events such as weddings usually do not take place. Couples eager to tie the knot face a year-long wait during that time.
Real pointers to China's future
The less glamourous points in the latest Chinese Government Working Report are not washed through mainstream media, yet it is these changes that will have a greater impact on people's livelihoods and influence anyone doing business in China or picking China stocks over the coming years.
China's local loan
pledges declared 'invalid'
China's Supreme People's Court has ruled the legal power of pledges extended by local governments to be invalid, a move that will inevitably affect the credibility of local loans, which used to enjoy the highest rating.
Foreign banks tighten
loans to China SOEs
Beijing is trying to reform its system of state-owned enterprises and curb their debt overhang. Not quickly enough for some international banks that are imposing stricter lending criteria and asking for collateral from some SOEs they previously considered safe.
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US-Iran talks
near Ides of March
The US-Iran negotiations have successfully crossed the boulder that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu threw in the way via his outreach to American lawmakers. The conclusion can be safely drawn after Netanyahu's speech that US lawmakers do not feel emboldened to enact new legislation intended to complicate the US-Iran talks nor is President Barack Obama feeling browbeaten to backtrack on his policy toward Iran.
- M K Bhadrakumar |
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Defying the toothless protests of Damascus and the threat of IS confronting Turkish troops, Ankara has scored a political point by "evacuating" the tomb of Suleiman Shah to a spot close to the Turkish border.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Messina, Italy |
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